The Sabres backup goalie is Drew McIntyre. If you are like me, you had to look him up to get the details, which include a grand total of 2 NHL appearances since being drafted in 2001. He’s had some solid years but has never made the jump. Ryan Miller has his second concussion in 8 months. Jhonas Enroth is playing great…but in the worst case scenario of Miller missing significant time it’s worth noting that Jhonas has only had one season with more than 50 appearances. Combine that with all the back to back weekends the Sabres have, and you can see that Enroth is in a bit of unknown territory. It’s early yet, and I wouldn’t want anyone to panic (not that this fanbase has done that this year AT ALL), but the goalie situation beyond Enroth gets interesting very quick if Miller isn’t any closer to returning after this week. Something to keep an eye on.
Tag: Jhonas Enroth
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Head Games
The plot, it does thicken. After a resounding win over the Senators, Buffalo went to Boston and let the Bruins run roughshod over them (literally). A lot has already been said about Lucic and Miller and responses. I think Nick Mendola summed up the immediate reaction best for me:
The Sabres immediate response to the offense was mostly fine in my book, given their personnel. Miller tried a blind baseball swing back at Lucic. Thomas Vanek tried to knock the train over. No dice. Andrej Sekera shoved Lucic and looked around for reinforcements. Not seeing any coming, he buried his head and hoped for the least beating possible. I’d like Paul Gaustad to look more interested in getting to Lucic, and maybe it’s above Tyler Myers’ weight class right now.
While I did wonder where the Gaustad is that came off the bench to attack Ovechkin for cheap-shotting Briere, but the officials got their arms on guys as quick as they could and Goose apparently didn’t see it happen. As for not taking care of Lucic later, well, for the rest of the 1st and 2nd periods, the game wasn’t out of reach (though those two goals later in the 2nd off stupid defense AGAIN had to drive even a concussed Miller crazy). Would I want a full-on brawl to develop? Would I have wanted Kaleta to run Tim Thomas? Or the usual suspects to charge Lucic whenever they could, late/dirty or not? I might’ve had a positive visceral reaction to events like that at the time, but after the fact, I’d be a bit disappointed. I like Tim Thomas, and I wouldn’t like to see him get hurt, even in retaliation for a stupid shot on a Sabre.
So, what happens next week when these two teams meet again, here? There are a few scenarios:
- Scenario One – The Sabres call up Kassian, roll out a line featuring Cody McCormick, Gaustad and BZK (backed by Regehr and Weber), and they brawl with whoever they are on the ice with, Neil/Drury game style. EXTREMELY UNLIKELY.
- Scenario Two – Cody McCormick fights Lucic, Kaleta hits him a few times. Beyond that, a normal game. MORE LIKELY.
- Scenario Three – Gary Bettman or Colin Campbell attend the game, and the teams are on their best behavior. SOMEWHAT LIKELY.
There is one wild card in this – a Sabres player truly running a Bruins player. Maybe Myers bounces Horton’s head off the boards accidently with his elbow. Maybe Kaleta does the usual Carubba worthy hit near the boards on a guy in an awkward position. It might even be an accident, and have nothing to do with the recent history. But that’s the one thing that will kick that next game into clownshoes territory. Still, the most likely one is the ‘one fight and done’ thing. ‘The next game’ is always a disappointment.
Miller is concussed, and Drew McIntyre will be the door opener for however long that lasts. Jhonas Enroth is the man now, and it’s no easy stretch coming up, in Montreal tonight, home for NJ Wednesday, then another set of back to backs this weekend (Friday in Carolina, Saturday here for Phoenix). You have to think Darcy and Lindy are hoping Miller is ready for the weekend but with a concussion, you just can’t know. The team needs to pull together here and rally.
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The New Boss
The Sabres won last night, though it still wasn’t pretty and took overtime and stupid penalties by the Thrasherjets to do it. So it pretty much ‘solves’ nothing about the Miller/Enroth debate. As I was watching the game last night, I think I came up with a good analogy for what is happening. It’s like when your boss retires, and some new guy comes in from another department to take over. You stop surfing the net, or goofing with your phone, or flirting with the hottie that sits a few cubes behind you. Look at ME, you are saying, this company is my LIFE.
But after a few weeks, you ease the throttle back a notch. Your work’s getting done, so there’s no harm in checking those NFL injury reports. You find yourself standing next to the hottie’s desk chatting away after you get coffee. It happens, you’re human. That’s where the Sabres are with Enroth, though. It’s still New Boss Mode. They sit up straight and pay attention for Jhonas in a way they don’t for Miller right now, and make no mistake, Miller needs the D to do just that. He needs to find his game, so they need to quit cheating, making bad passes, and generally expecting Miller to make the save. He isn’t right now, so they need to put their phones away, leave the hottie alone (she’s got a boyfriend anyway guys) and get to work. In the long run it’ll make them a better team when Ryan does get his game back on track.
Cody damaged Glass's hand WITH HIS FACE As for the game last night, I missed the first period, and when I saw the score I thought “darn, I missed all the fun”. Yeah, not so much. Thomas Vanek scored twice (although the second one was ricocheting a goal in off him in his office), and Roy had two goals, including the one that tied the game late to send it to overtime. It was a penalty-filled affair, with the Jets taking some dumb penalties in particular. I thought Gerbe embellished to get the penalty in the OT. Pominville played half the game. A special nod to Gaustad for the super-sweet pass, and Cody McCormick for the epic bout with Tanner Glass. Commander Cody got cut, possibly by Glass hitting his helmet as Tanner had to ice his hand in the penalty box afterwards. Oh, and congratulations to Corey Tropp for his first NHL goal.
See you Friday when the Sens come to town. May be in the pressbox for that one.
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Gameday 2011-2012 – Jets at Sabres
It’s going to be quite a night at the FNC tonight. Dale Hawerchuk and Rick Jeanneret will be inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame (hey, that means they get swords right? COOL). The newfangled Thrasher-Jets are in town for the first time, and we are all waiting impatiently to see which goalie gets the nod tonight for Buffalo. Ryan Miller provided some choice quotes regarding the situation:
“I’m here to win,” Miller said Monday. “That’s the emotion you get from me. If I’m discouraged, if I’m pissed off, that’s just how it is. I want to win. I don’t want to be out there getting scored on. I don’t want to be pulled out of a game. I want to, you know, I want to fucking win the game.”
I put the bad words back in, those weren’t in the News story. Could you imagine all the letters (hand-written!) they’d get from the old people that still get a physical copy of the paper? Heh. By the way, love this bit from Lindy Ruff at the end:
“There’s a lot of fire there,” Ruff said. “He’s emotional about his game, and that’s what you like. I like him the way he is.”
I keep hearing the chorus to “Just the Way You Are” now. Aww. Moving on, Ennis and Hecht are still recovering, and Kaleta is still suspended, so I imagine Corey Tropp will still be in tonight. As an aside, wasn’t his name being pronounced like it was spelled ‘trope’ in the preseason? Or maybe at Traverse City. Whichever way it’s said, he hasn’t looked out of place out there to me. It’s a 7pm game, but expect it to start a bit later with the pre-game festivities. Adjust your DVRs accordingly if you need to record the game.
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Winning Weekend Fans The Goalie ‘Controversy’ Flames
Buffalo played Jhonas Enroth in both back to back games this weekend, and won both by one goal. It certainly won’t mute the vocal minority who are now thinking that maybe Enroth should be the one to get 50-60 games this year. I don’t think that’s what is happening here, Ruff is giving Ryan Miller some time to clear that horrible Flyers game out of his head, get the work in at practice, and come back with a vengeance.
As for the games, the one on Friday against the Flames was about as perfect a game as Buffalo could play. They peppered Calgary’s backup goalie with shots, with Stafford and Gerbe scoring in the 2-1 win. It was night and day from the difficult to watch team that couldn’t seem to buy a good scoring chance, when they weren’t too busy giving the puck away. Last night’s game against the Senators was more even and not quite as dominant, but still showed a lot of positive signs. Robyn Regehr was wrecking dudes, Boyes and Leino both played very solidly, and Nathan Gerbe was a stud on the Leopold goal. Derek Roy scored the other Buffalo goal, and also had the decider in the shootout. Vanek and Boyes both contributed in the shootout as well to keep Buffalo alive. These two games really seem like what we were expecting from the start of the season, the right guys contributing…save for the goalie. REALLY interested to see how Enroth gets used in the up coming week, with a Tuesday home game against Winnipeg, another Friday/Saturday combo with a rematch against Ottawa and a trip to Boston, then a Monday game in Montreal. Is he back to one game on the weekend? Two? I think if Miller plays well against Winnipeg, assuming he goes in for that one, we are back to the ‘schedule’ for Jhonas. But if he plays against the Jets…
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Gameday 2011-2012 – Flames at Sabres
Well, that was an interesting week. We see line shuffling, Miller chased in less than 7 minutes, Enroth holding the line for a comeback try, but ultimately still losing at home to the Flyers. Kaleta gets suspended 4 games, and Corey Tropp is up to take his spot in the lineup. Ready your Tropp-ic Thunder or Tropp-ical Storm puns now.
So, Kaleta. He definitely hit the dude in the head, I don’t know that he was trying to head-butt ’em, but it was a reckless play that contacted the head, so 4 games works. The people spoke and Kaleta was the popular choice for most suspended Sabre, and now he’s got quite a lead.
The Flames come in tonight for another 7:30pm start, off a 4-1 win in Detroit last night. That’s right, Buffalo gets to be the rested team tonight. Calgary is pretty much on par with the Sabres right now, with solid wins surrounding painful losses. They’ve at least had the decency to win more than one at home, though. Lindy is playing coy about which goalie plays tonight, as for Calgary, they play Kipper into the ground so it wouldn’t surprise me to see Kiprusoff out there. Doesn’t help that backup Henrik Karlsson is 0-1-1 with a 3.32 GAA in his limited appearances. We’ll probably know more after practice today.
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Poll: Your Feelings on Jhonas Enroth
(hey, if they are going to blame calls for Enroth on blogs, might as well make it official!)
[poll id=”5″]
Meant to be tongue-in-cheek, as we all know Miller is the guy. Just curious.
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Sabres Hold Off Jackets
Giving up 40+ shots isn’t how you want to win, but a strong performance from Jhonas Enroth allowed the Sabres to do just that last night. Vanek/Adam/Pominville continue to dominate, with Pommers scoring twice, Vanek assisting on 3, and Brad Boyes scoring again. There were penalties and giveaways, guys named Cody fighting, and a Kaleta goal celebration. It was the sort of game where you are happy you won but you still work the team twice as hard so they don’t get it in their heads that this was okay. Still, it was entertaining as hell to watch. Two of the goals came on the powerplay, which looked to have better puck and player movement. That’s one thing they don’t have to forget, at least.
The Sabres will be back at it tomorrow night against the Panthers, and I might be in the pressbox for that one.
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Gameday 2011-2012 – Blue Jackets at Sabres
The Columbus Blue Jackets come in for a visit tonight at the First Niagara Center, coming off their first win of the season. It was the first game back for James Wisniewski after his long suspension from the Shan-hammer. The Sabres, of course, are still looking for their first win at the FNC, but they should have a decent chance to get one tonight or Saturday against the Panthers. For all the Miller talk in the Yahoo game preview, Jhonas Enroth gets this game. A good place to get him in, and a good sign that Lindy is going to actually play him 25 games as it’s NOT a back to back situation.
7pm start. Time to get on a roll.
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A Solid Start
Four games in, and the Sabres have three wins to show for it. Not too shabby. Buffalo’s best players are heavily involved, with Vanek leading the way with 7 points (3G 4A), and youngster Luke Adam making his case to stay up all season with 6 points (3+3). I love that Lindy has committed to Enroth playing a lot:
“We plan on using Jhonas a fair amount. In back-to-back situations, we’re definitely going to use him. The overall plan for him is to get him in every three or four games.”
This is music to my ears, and probably a load off Ryan Miller’s shoulders. Jhonas battled for the win in the back half of this weekend’s back to back games against the Crosby and Malkin-less Pens. Every weekend in November involves back to back games, so if you aren’t familiar with Enroth, you will be soon enough. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets in on any games in the next two weeks first though, as there are 3 games each week with a day in between.
Check out the ice time from that game, by the way, could we be back to the post-lockout ‘roll four lines’ Sabres? Would love it.
